Lucifer's Inferno
by charlibubble
Summary: Chloe lands in Hell and Lucifer has a plan to help her to escape but it wont be easy. For either of them.
1. Chapter 1

_note: I own nothing. _

_Set sometime after season 4. My first Lucifer fic so please be kind; its been a while! Loosely based on Dantes Inferno and written while listening to depressing Lewis Capaldi songs. I hope you enjoy! _

The first thing she became aware of was a feint noise. Almost like crying, heartfelt, broken crying from somewhere far, far away. This was quickly replaced by a solid beeping noise that got louder and louder until she felt like it might burst right through her brain She landed with a bump in a dark non-descript space. It jolted her awake even though she wasn't sure she had ever been asleep.

There was no way to tell what had happened to her, it was akin to waking up from a dream confused about where you were. This place was grey as slate with no discernible shape to speak of, just nothingness that appeared to stretch for days. Then the smell drifted in, the kind of putrid smell that doesn't just offend your nostrils but enters your very soul and replaces your bloodstream. She stepped forward, the sound echoing eerily around the space. There was something about this place that seemed familiar to her somehow and yet it felt very empty and alone at the same time.

"Hello?"

Nothing.

That was possibly what she expected and yet it seemed like the silence was swallowing her whole. The nothing settled around her like a fog, slowly at first but then all at once till it filled her lungs. It chocked and it strangled her until she was bent over, hands on her knees retching. Trying to rid her body of whatever it was infecting her soul.

Finally heaving herself upright she blinked in the darkness and began to recognise shapes on the horizon. A building perhaps? Or a piece of furniture?

She wanted to move towards it, but it seemed she was anchored in place somehow. Her steps taking her nowhere despite the sound flying at her from all angles.

She began to panic. She was a logical person, none of this made sense. Her mind desperately searched for some kind of clarity on what had happened to her, how she had ended up in this place and where exactly this place was.

Her mind was suddenly as empty as this space.

She couldn't remember where she had been that day or even what day it was. Had she actively taken herself here? Was she a prisoner? Who even was she?

It hit her, all at once.

She had no idea who she was.

Did she have a name?

a family?

A home?

Nothing rang a bell. How could she figure out where she was if she had no idea who she was?

A shadow formed in the distance before her. Just a wisp of a shape at first before it formed into the shape of something more familiar. A silhouette stood proud against a background of grey. A man. Standing there like a solitary lighthouse which should have been comforting but was actually incredibly unnerving. He should be moving surely, breathing at least but the stillness of this horrible place continued as he stood there watching her unravel.

She stepped towards him but again, made no progress. She began to step faster, and faster until she was running and running towards this promise of companionship and clarity.

She stopped, her heart beating like a train, her breath making clouds in the air as she struggled to calm her rising panic. The shadow was no closer and no further away. Her efforts had gone unrewarded and she didn't know what else she could try. She pressed her eyes closed tightly trying to redeem some of her senses and when she opened them again the shadow was gone. Vanished like it had never existed.

Her eyes desperately searched out a sense of it. A trail of smoke or a fading sound in the abyss but there was nothing at all until it seemed the air was sucked out of the space. Her heart felt like it stopped beating in her chest, her breath was stolen away, and her eyes shot wide open as the shadow materialised inches in front of her. Red eyes peered deep into hers like they were searching for something. Reaching deep down into the locked away areas of her subconscious.

She may have been frozen, but the shadow was clearly not and as quickly as it had materialised it pulled back with a start standing tall in front of her. The shape became more defined;

Tall, broad shoulders, well defined jaw, a smart suit?

He stood, staring with a look of sheer horror as though she was the one to be feared. She didn't understand it, but it was comforting to her to know she was not the only one afraid.

He took a step forward and she inadvertently flinched away from him, her body reacting before she knew what it was doing. He looked genuinely hurt but he didn't step forward again. He began to step backwards, shaking his head and running both hands through his hair. He turned as though he was about to march away before stopping himself to stare at her again.

"Detective?" He muttered in disbelief, His eyes burning into her "What are you doing here!?"


	2. Limbo

Limbo

For Lucifer staring into the abyss was par for the course. This was probably why he liked earth so much. No day was the same and he could be entertaining ladies one second and apprehending villains the next. Variety was the spice of life, so they say. Which is probably why as every moment down here passed by, he felt more and more dead inside.

It wouldn't be so bad if he was the one dishing out the punishments. At least then he would have something to do as time continued to tick past him. There was no concept of time in hell, it was infinite. Infinite time, infinite space, infinite pain and suffering etc etc

No, he merely had to decide the punishment for his demon subjects to then act out. He used to take great pleasure in doling out punishments that fitted the crime. It was a job he took very seriously before he had any concept of life out with this place. He loved thinking up new and creative ways to ensure their afterlife was as miserable as possible. Now it just felt empty. The same thing every time someone dies. They turn up, he decides their punishment, they then spend eternity suffering it.

Same old. Same old.

His heart wasn't in it anymore and everyone knew it. The demons used to sir with excitement when a new subject arrived. There was fanfare, fire and brimstone. The dead would arrive to an underworld heaving with grossly deformed creatures baying for blood as they walked among rivers of lava while screams filled their air like a symphony.

Now it was silent. Silent and grey and lonely.

Now Lucifer welcomed the dead with nothing but himself and one lowly allocated demon. Now he simply looked into their soul and sent them on their way.

There were many times he had been tempted to return to earth. To rebel and go back to his old ways. There were some days he felt like it wasn't worth it, sitting here on his throne surrounded by misery. There was no real force holding him here. Why should the devil have a conscience?

Then he would think about her and it would come flooding back to him.

He couldn't put her, them, in danger. And this was the only way to keep them safe. As much as it was a punishment for him.

That was probably always the intention.

Dishing out punishment was his own purgatory.

A pillar of smoke appeared in the distance. Somewhere in between the maze of grey spread out below him. That meant they had a new guest.

A new sinner.

A new plaything for his subjects.

A new misery for him to inflict.

It used to be fun.

He hesitated too long to be considered polite on earth. Sitting there wallowing in his own self pity instead of greeting their new subject. The smoke had all but cleared by the time he was motivated enough to attend. He watched from a distance at first. This lump of flesh standing in the middle of nothing. So vulnerable and confused.

He pitied them.

Slowly he materialised in the distance. Despite his lack of enthusiasm on the subject he enjoyed the theatrics of fear at the beginning. They very rarely knew they were dead. Most people assumed they had some sort of control over the judgement and sentencing or some sort of knowledge of their death. Usually they simply awoke in a state of confusion while he toyed with them like a mouse in the grasp of a playful feline.

The big reveal was always ill received. He was now very well versed on being the bad guy. He had spent his entire life being something other than his true self to just about everyone. He played the part well.

Forming directly in front of his victims was usually quite fun. The fear filled them from their toes to the very tips of their hair follicles. He could actually see it as it washed over them, and it was one of the best parts of his duties as the king of hell.

Not this time,

As he formed in front of this feeble little mortal and the fear crashed over her, he was the one who began to tremble. He recognised those eyes as crystal clear blue as the most enchanting bay in the ocean. He recognised her skin as smooth and soft as the most luxurious silk in china. He recognised her lips, her scent, the way her heartbeat sounded, and her breath caught as he looked into her eyes.

He recognised all of her.

But she didn't recognise him.

She was afraid.

The fear was evident and instantaneous, and it hurt like nothing he had felt before. He had seen her afraid of him before, but he had literally given up his life to keep her safe. She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be anywhere near here and as soon as he told her she was dead her life would flash before her eyes, revealing all her losses. including him.

Chloe stared at him; he was in human form as he always was at the beginning. He liked to keep the whole devil thing under wraps until the moment of the most drama. That usually being straight after their own personal life montage. Her fear slowly waned, he could feel everything in this place. He felt everyone's fear, sorrow, guilt, regret. He couldn't feel those anymore from her. She filled him with something new, a warmth that he had almost forgotten.

He attempted to shake it off, knowing that in all crevices of this place there were eyes that watched his every move. They were waiting for a moment like this, a moment of mortality that they could manipulate and use against him. He may still be vulnerable around her, even in this place.

"Welcome!" He declared, smiling a devilish grin and opening his arms wide. "You are in Hell"

He liked to pause for effect here under normal circumstances but Chloe Decker, THE Chloe Decker turning up was far from normal circumstances and his mind raced as he attempted to think of a way to keep her safe down here. Demons waited in the darkness for instruction. They would take her away to endure her punishment. Lucifer would be forced to feel the pain and suffering of the only person he had ever truly loved. That couldn't happen.

Not today.

Lucifer searched his mind for a solution. Only one mortal person had ever actually left hell without being directly escorted by an angel and it hadn't been an easy exit. It became clear to him that this was their only real option. He swept Chloe into his arms and whisked her away, shooting a red eyed warning towards any nearby demon waiting to pounce. He couldn't actively fly her out of hell, but he could set her on the right path to redemption.


	3. Pride

Pride

They swept into a forest. Dark and dense with no obvious border. Lucifer placed Chloe gently against a large grey tree and stepped away, his mind racing away from him. He was about to unleash all the earthly memories of the woman he loved, and this part was never pretty for anyone. Right now, this was just the body of Chloe Decker. She had no recollection of anything in her life, none of the memories, fears or loves that Chloe had experienced. She was essentially an empty shell, but he was about to change that.

He took a deep breath. It had to be done. The detective was intelligent and intuitive. Once she knew what was going on, she would be much better equipped to take the journey ahead of her. He couldn't expect her to want to return to a life she had no recollection of. She'd need every ounce of savvy that she had, and Lucifer knew that. He could play the part of hospitable devil just as he had done many times before.

With a click of his fingers Chloe was bombarded with every memory her conscious and sub conscious mind had ever stored. Every tiny moment she had ever experienced. Her first day at school, first car, first kiss. Their first kiss, that heady embrace that he still had imprinted on his mind.

Trixie.

Her body visibly trembled. He had never had someone he was afraid to leave behind. Not until he had met her and even then, he had the ability to segment that part of his personality and present a persona of aloofness to the world. He only faced up to those vulnerabilities in private on very rare occasions they fought their way to the surface. She fell heavily into his arms and selfishly he found himself thankful for the opportunity to once again touch a human being.

"We can fix this" He muttered as he breathed in the scent of her hair and the feel of her body pressed close to his.

Chloe pulled herself free. A frown danced across her brow, a solitary tear crossing her cheek as she studied him with an intensity he hadn't expected.

"How?"

He stood, began pacing and reciting his master plan. He probably hadn't thought of everything. He never really did but that's why they were such a great team. He and the detective balanced each other, and she always found a way to fill in the gaps of his schemes. Granted half the time he ignored her and went rushing headlong into it anyway but that was not the point.

"No" She stopped him mid-monologue; standing in front of him to stop his pacing. "How did I die? How did I end up here?"

This is a question he was very accustomed to. They always asked, claiming they were perfectly good humans and he took such joy in smashing their ideological views of their lives. This time he knew he had to tread carefully because facing up to your own flaws was an integral part of escaping hell and generally the place where people fell.

"well…I can't tell you"

The frown grew deeper.

"If you ever want to get out of here, you need to figure it out for yourself Detective." He grinned "It is the first challenge after all. Well, part of it"

With that Lucifer opened a previously invisible door to the left of him and walked through it, leaving it ajar behind him in the hope she would follow of her own free will. It had to be her choice of course. Dear old dad would not take kindly to him chaperoning his subjects out of hell.

In the room was a set of stairs that stretched as far as the eye could see into an infinite altitude. All around them the air had changed from grey to red and orange. Flakes of black dust floated through the air at random intervals and the smell of ash and charcoal filled the air.

"Welcome to redemption" He grinned "Your one-way ticket to freedom. All you have to do is take the first step" He gestured towards the steps and looked away muttering something under his breath.

"What was that?" Chloe asked, her intuition never failed to enthral him.

"Ok" He sighed "There are 7 steps to redemption. They are all horrible and nobody has ever actually made it…. well apart from Dante"

He waved his hand around flippantly as though dismissing the whole thing.

"Dante?!" Chloe cried "You expect me to complete Dante's Inferno?!"

Of course, she had heard of it. He had been naive to think he could get away with dismissing the greatest challenge in heaven and earth. And Hell, apparently. It wasn't the first time he had cursed that infernal author. As if mouthing off about hell wasn't bad enough, he had to come up with a step by step visitors guide.

"Look, its not as bad as you think. Dante had a flair for the dramatic" He soothed.

In reality though, Dante had done a pretty decent job describing the stages. They were quite out-dated now of course. A morality test must move with the times.

Chloe began to pace back and forth, obviously weighing up her options. This was the only one. The only way to get out of this place but he was happy to allow her time to exhaust all other options n her mind. Time was now infinite after all.

"There has to be another way" She began but Lucifer simply shook his head and held out his hand.

"I'll be right by your side" He reassured her "Best tour guide this side of Hell"

Together they took the first step and as soon as their feet touched it it began to stretch out in front of them. There were 4 bags in front of them, filled to the brim with varying sizes of weights. A small placard stood proud at the side of them declaring the challenge was to get the weights from step one to step two.

"Seems simple enough" declared Chloe, swinging one bag onto her back and raising the other two to her shoulders. The last one she hung around her neck and she began to walk. Lucifer dutifully followed. He was itching to tell her about this challenge. It was incredibly simple and therein was its beauty. People generally took the instruction as Chloe had and this is where they failed. In the challenge of pride, it was important to face one's own failings and failing to recognise pride in oneself was like pride fail 101.

She began to move forward at a steady pace. Her footsteps echoed around them and seemed to get louder each time. She had been moving for what seemed like a very long time when she realised that she hadn't actually moved at all. Lucifer had somehow found himself a chair and was lounging back in it with one leg crossed over the other and a glass of bourbon in his hand.

"what's going on?" she asked "I'm not moving at all"

Lucifer grinned "They don't call it a challenge for nothing detective"

Chloe tried rearranging the bags and took some larger steps then some smaller steps, then she ran. Still Lucifer was right there beside her. Her breath became laboured and droplets of sweat formed on her brow. Lucifer expected her to give up any moment, but she defied him and continued. Over and Over she attempted to make some kind of progress and over and over she failed.

"What am I doing wrong?!" she cried, dropping the bags at her feet with an almighty crash. This was usually the moment Lucifer got to gloat over his subject as he waved them off to purgatory, but Chloe picked up the bags once more. "can you help me?"

She stepped forward, a strange expression of angry determination crossing her face. Lucifer stood and took ownership of two of the bags; people usually gave up by now. Even he was unsure what would come next.

Chloe began to move, very slowly at first but getting faster until Lucifer had to jog a little to keep pace.

"Well done Detective!" He cheered.

A tiny smile of relief crossed her lips before she stopped very suddenly. The relief was soon replaced by fear. Once again, she dropped the bags her hands clutching her stomach and all colour drained form her face. She crouched down to the ground, landing heavily on her knees. Lucifer ran to her side and she clutched the sleeve of his suit desperately.

"I know how I died" She muttered, moving her hands away to revel they were soaked in blood that was rapidly spreading across her torso. A tiny hole pierced through her shirt indicating a bullet as Chloe recounted attending a crime scene alone to meet a suspect for negotiations. Nobody knew where she was or who she was with and so she bled out on her own and her body was not found for days.

"I should have told someone I was going" She gasped as her breath grew short and Lucifer held her in his arms "I just …. I wanted to do it myself. I thought I could do it, but I couldn't"

With that statement her eyes closed, their surroundings melted away and the weights disappeared. They were now in a green room filled with expensive looking furniture and delicate decoration. They were sat on a lush green carpet and soft music played around them. Lucifer shook Chloe awake.

"Detective" He couldn't hide his joy "You made it! Welcome to Envy"


End file.
